Conventional chocolate production and processing methods avoid contact with water since small amounts of added water cause severe rheological changes in the product, usually accompanied by lumping and/or granulation leading to a coarse unacceptable eating texture (Minifie, B. W. Chocolate, Cocoa and Confectionery—Science and Technology, 3 edition, Chapman & Hall (1989)). On the contrary, addition of larger quantities of water, usually in the form of fresh cream or full cream milk, results in the production of “ganache” which is conventionally used as a short shelf-life filling for truffles or as a topping for confections. Ganache is the confectioner's term for a phase-inverted (i.e., oil-in-water) chocolate preparation that has a softer eating texture than normal chocolate and that does not have the snap of traditional chocolate when broken.
European patent application 832,567 describes a process for the preparation of chocolate or the like that has a high water content. The water is in a dispersed phase in the form of micro-droplets in a continuous fatty phase that contains crystallized sugars. A mass of chocolate is carefully mixed into an emulsified water-in-oil base, so that destruction of the water-in-oil structure of the emulsion is substantially avoided. Contact between the sweetened components and the non-fatty solids of cocoa on the one hand and the dispersed aqueous phase on the other is responsible for the formation of agglomerates. This results in the ability of the chocolate to be converted by conventional manufacturing processes. It has been found that, when a milk chocolate with a high water content is produced by this process, a ganache is obtained whose softer texture and poor contraction makes it unsuitable for conventional chocolate manufacturing processes such as molding, because the product does not contract sufficiently so that it can be removed from the mold.
European patent application 958,747 overcomes the above problem by adding a sucrose syrup and discloses a method for the preparation of a water-in-oil phase chocolate formulation. The method comprises the step of admixing a concentrated sugar syrup to a chocolate fat phase that has a fat content of at least 25% w/w under conditions of low shear at a temperature of from 30° C. to 55° C. wherein the viscosity of the sugar syrup is in the range of from 500 cps to 140,000 cps measured at 20° C. and the sugar syrup has a solids content of at least 70% w/w. The final moisture content of the chocolate formulation is in the range of from 2% to 20% w/w and the fat content usually ranges from 28% to about 45% w/w.
This process only works, however, if there is no crystallization of sugar in the sugar syrup phase of the formulation during preparation. Also, this sugar syrup is added to the chocolate fat phase and not to the chocolate itself. This means that, in the case of dark chocolate, the sugar is added as the syrup to a mixture of cocoa butter and cocoa liquor, i.e., not to chocolate. In traditional chocolate making, a conching process is used to obtain the correct flavor in the final product (Beckett, S. T. Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use, 3rd Edition, Chapter 9, Blackwell Science, 1999). This process could not be used in this case, as the need for a slow speed mixer is emphasized, whereas a conch is a higher shear device. It also has been found that the application of higher speed mixing to all types of water containing chocolate results in a ganache type of product which, as noted above, cannot be successfully be removed from a mold.
In the preparation of milk chocolate, European patent application 958,747 adds the syrup to milk chocolate ingredients that have a lower sugar content. If a normal sugar content were present (i.e., one that is usually above 45%), the addition of further sugar through the syrup would result in a product that has a sugar content that is outside of the recognized legislative limits for chocolate (See Beckett, S. T. Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use, 3rd Edition, Chapters 18 and 23, Blackwell Science, 1999). In addition, if sucrose or glucose like sugars were used in the syrup the product would be too sweet. Also this illustrates that once again the syrup is being added to unconched ingredients.
The levels of sugar used in the examples of European patent application 958,747 are in fact more typical of those used in ice-cream chocolate and that patent application states that the eating texture is very complementary with ice-cream chocolate. Ice-cream coatings, however, have a different texture to traditional chocolate tablets (Beckett, S. T. The Science of Chocolate, Royal Society Of Chemistry, 2000). It should be noted that the milk solids levels quoted in the example of European patent application 958,747 are below the level necessary to give the milk chocolate its traditional taste and texture, and that the water contents are lower than for the dark chocolate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,509 describes a milk chocolate containing 1-16% water in which the chocolate preparation is produced by mixing cocoa butter with cocoa ingredients in the presence of an edible emulsifier so that the ingredients are thoroughly coated with cocoa butter. This mixture is then blended with an aqueous phase prepared separately by mixing water, sweetener and milk solids to give a uniform mixture without resulting in high viscosity, followed by tempering at 27-32° C. in the absence of a conching step. It has been found that conching turns the mixture into a ganache that cannot be molded satisfactorily because it does not contract sufficiently to be removed from the mold. As was the case with European patent application 958,747, this absence of a conching stage will result in a chocolate that has a much different taste than traditional chocolate (Beckett, S. T. Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use, 3rd Edition, Chapter 9, Blackwell Science, 1999). Furthermore, it has also been found that conching a water containing dark chocolate would result in a product that does not retain the taste of a fully processed dark chocolate.
European patent application 401,427 describes a cream-containing chocolate which contains about 1.8 to 10% of moisture content and not less than 3% of milk fat content. A water-in-oil type emulsion consisting of a cream which has not less than 30% of milk fat content is used in this product. Also, a lipophilic emulsifier is mixed in a chocolate base material which may be a dark, milk or white chocolate, by kneading. The chocolate product can contract from a mold because the fat, which contracts when changing from liquid to solid on cooling, is the continuous phase. No non-fat milk solids are present in the water-in-oil type emulsion even when a milk or white chocolate is to be prepared. This means that it can not legally be called milk chocolate, nor can it have the taste and texture of a typical milk chocolate tablet.
Although not wishing to be bound by this theory, it is believed that if the required amount of milk solids were present in the water-in-oil type emulsion, the hydrophilic proteins present in milk solids would attract water and destroy the emulsion structure. Water and hydrophilic particles would then become the second continuous phase when the emulsion is mixed with the chocolate base material i.e., the result would be a product that is similar to a ganache and one that would not be capable of contracting in the mold for removal. This is because water does not significantly contract, because unlike fat it does not solidify during the cooling process.
Furthermore, many products are now sold to provide the consumers with added benefits to their health e.g., added vitamins or calcium. Some of these are soluble only in fats, while others are soluble only in water. As conventional chocolate has a relatively low water content, it is not possible to successfully add water soluble additives to chocolate.
Attempts to add an emulsion to normal milk chocolate result in ganache unless the mixing would be carried out at extremely low rates, which would make it commercially unviable. In addition, it has been found that milk chocolates made under these extremely low shear/mixing rates become white due to bloom within 24 hours.
Accordingly, none of the above processes are completely satisfactory, e.g., they are either not cost-effective, the eating texture of the resultant chocolate product is not considered by the consumer to be typical of a milk chocolate bar at ambient temperatures, or the chocolate cannot be readily be removed from a mold, thus limiting its use in confectionery products. The present invention now remedies these problems.